Thanks For Being a Friend
by Lady Elizabeth of New York
Summary: Marlene's getting married. And after finding out that Sirius still loves Marlene, Lily goes to talk to him. Sirius might have been James' adopted brother but Lily had to have some say in who was Harry's godfather. So here's my little oneshot on Sirius and Lily's friendship.


Lily carried the groceries into the kitchen.

"James, I'm home," Lily called. "Can you give me a hand with the groceries?" James ran into the kitchen and grabbed the two brown bags from her.

"Lily, you shouldn't be carrying such a heavy load in your condition," James scolded her sternly. "You could have hurt yourself."

"James, I'm pregnant. Not made of glass," Lily told him with a sigh, pulling out the loaf of bread and a carton of milk from the bags. Then she groaned. "I forgot to bring in the mail. I better go get it." James quickly stopped her.

"No, no, my love. I'll get it," James told her firmly, making her sit down. "You just rest. Accio Potter's mail." The mail flew into James' hands. He then handed the mail to a scowling Lily.

"I could have done that," she snapped, taking the mail from him.

"Then why didn't you?" James asked with a smirk.

"Because I… need the exercise," Lily lied lamely. James sniggered. Lily glared at him. She sorted through the letters. Her eyes widened. "Oh wow, Marlene sent us her wedding invitation."

"Already? Didn't she only get engaged five weeks ago?" James questioned in surprise.

"We sent our wedding invitations about five days after we got engaged," Lily reminded him.

"Yeah but everyone wanted us to get married," James muttered. Lily gave him a sharp look.

"James, don't start," Lily pleaded.

"All I'm saying is that Marlene shouldn't be marrying that dull prick," James remarked.

"And who should she marry? Sirius?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Yes, Sirius is a lot better than that stupid bloke," James answered angrily, defending his best friend.

"But Sirius doesn't want to marry Marlene," Lily said fiercely. "He can't even commit to a comb let alone Marlene."

"The only reason Sirius didn't want to get married to Marlene was because he was scared of becoming like his parents," James exclaimed. "And for your information, he only has seven combs."

"That's just stupid," Lily snapped. "Sirius is nothing like his parents."

"Yeah, well tell that to him," James muttered. Lily sighed and got up. "Where are you going?" James inquired.

"To go find Sirius and convince him to talk to Marlene," Lily answered gently. "She needs to know how he feels before she gets married."

"Lily," James began. Lily gave him a pleading look. "He's at the pub across the street from his flat."

* * *

"Are you lost, Miss?" the bartender asked eyeing Lily's protruding belly with a disproving look. Lily rolled her eyes. She had gotten the same look when she was in the coffee shop earlier. As if it was anyone else's business what she did. Not that she would drink anything that would harm her child but that wasn't the point.

"No, I'm not," Lily answered coolly.

"You really shouldn't drink when you're pregnant, Miss," the bartender lectured, clearly thinking that she was an irresponsible teenager who didn't know the first thing about babies. Lily glared at him.

"Really? I didn't realize that. Thank you for telling me. By the way, I'm sorry I mistook this place for a pub instead of a Healer's office," Lily snapped. "Now if you excuse me, I have a friend I need to talk to." With a huff, Lily stormed over to a booth where Sirius was sitting.

"Hey Lils, wanna have a drink?" Sirius questioned cheekily, having overheard the whole conversation. Lily gave him a hard look before sitting down across from him. "Gotta say, I wasn't excepting to see you here tonight. James or Remus maybe but not you."

"Why not?" Lily asked quietly, even though she could guess the answer.

"Well we've never been that close," Sirius explained. "Besides, I always thought you were Marlene's best friend first."

"How did you know that I was here about that?" Lily questioned.

"Because I got the invitation in the mail. I can't believe that she invited me. I guess that's her way of rubbing the fact that she's happy in my face," Sirius remarked, taking another siup of his firewhiskey.

"Okay, first of all, you have rubbed a lot of girls in her face," Lily reminded him sharply. "And second of all, maybe this is her way of wanting to bury the hatchet. She still cares about you, you know."

"No offense, Lils, but I doubt it. You know how bitter our last break up was. She probaly hates my guts," Sirius said sadly. Lily sighed.

"You don't know that. Just like she doesn't know the real reason you don't want to get married," Lily reasoned. Sirius' eyes narrowed.

"Did James tell you that?" he asked angrily. Lily chuckled nervously, suddenly fearing that her son would grow up without a father.

"Of course not. I'm just very intuitive," Lily lied. Sirius gave her a disbelieving look.

"Lily, I love you and I'm not calling you dumb. But you failed to realize that James and Snape were not fighting over Mary McDonald when it was so obvious to everyone else that they were in fact fighting over you," Sirius reminded her.

"It was not that obvious," Lily snapped.

"Oh really? James said 'I love her more than you do.' To which Snape replied 'No you don't, you just want to shag her. I'm her best friend.' When have Snape and Mary ever been friends?"

"They could have been," Lily snapped. Sirius snorted. Lily gave him a scathing look. "Don't change the subject. We're talking about you and Marlene. You have to go talk to her before she gets married."

"Well according to the invitation that she sent me, I have till next month," Sirius joked. Lily glared at him.

"Stop joking around. Take this seriously for once instead of being such an immature jerk," Lily shouted angrily.

"Hey I didn't ask you to come here and talk to me. You're the one who insisted," Sirius said crossly. "Maybe you should stop sticking your nose in other people's business."

"Fine, you're right. I guess there's nothing more for me to say. I'm going to leave you drink yourself to sleep. I'm going to go to my best friend's wedding and watch her get married to her fiancée even though I know she's rather be with you. But I won't say anything because it's none of my business," Lily said with a sigh, getting up.

"Lily, wait," Sirius pleaded. Lily sat back down. "Of course I don't want her to get married to some other guy. I love her. But I don't want our marriage to end up like my parents', I love her too much to do that to her."

"Sirius, sometimes you have to take a chance. It might be scary and it might end up badly but if you don't, you will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life," Lily told him softly, getting up and walking out of the bar.

Sirius sighed. He knew she was right. He would have to talk to Marlene. Tomorrow.

* * *

"I should have married you," Sirius whispered to the gravestone as tears ran down his face.

"Sirius," Lily said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"If we're together, she wouldn't have met Andrew. They wouldn't have had a fight and she wouldn't have gone to her parents' house for the night," Sirius sobbed. "This is all my fault. I'm the reason she's dead."

"It's not your fault," Lily assured him. "Now come on. Let's get you home."

"Do you think she knew that I still loved her?" Sirius asked softly.

"Of course she did. Why else would she have broken up with Andrew," Lily told him sweetly. Sirius smiled sadly, wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and followed Lily away from the grave.

He stopped and turned back to the grave. He pulled out a diamond ring and put it on the bouquet of flowers before catching up with Lily. He hugged her.

"Thanks," he said softly.

"For what?" Lily asked curiously.

"For being a friend," Sirius answered.


End file.
